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Mugabe plots to seize 'imperialist' British firms
The Telegraph ^ | 5/27/2007 | Stephen Bevan and Michael Gwarizo

Posted on 05/26/2007 7:46:02 PM PDT by bruinbirdman

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe plans to seize majority stakes in all the country's foreign-owned businesses in what economists warn could be a repeat of the regime's disastrous land reform policy.

Under legislation approved by the cabinet two weeks ago, all companies will be required to give up at least 51 per cent of their shares for allocation to economically disadvantaged, "indigenous" Zimbabweans.

There are signs that the government intends to use the laws to attack the commercial interests of countries such as Britain, the former colonial ruler, which Mugabe accuses of plotting to remove him from power. However, companies linked with friendly regimes, such as China and Malaysia, will be protected.

The hit list might include British banks such as Standard Chartered and Barclays. A minister told The Sunday Telegraph that the banks were seen as having "sabotaged" Mugabe's land reform programme by refusing to extend financial support to black farmers.

"The president made it clear, when cabinet approved the Bill to be tabled before parliament, that the time had come to empower our people.

"He said the indigenisation exercise must be undertaken in the same fashion as the land reform programme."

The minister added that Mugabe had vowed that "imperialist companies" would be targeted as they had been operating with what the president described as a "sinister, regime-change agenda."

Standard Chartered, which has 26 offices employing 900 people in Zimbabwe, declined to comment. A spokesman for Barclays, which has 29 branches and more than 1,000 staff in the country, said: "We are currently assessing the potential impact of the proposed legislation on our business in Zimbabwe. It is early days and the proposed Bill may not become law."

Other British companies likely to be targeted are BP, which has 37 service stations in Zimbabwe, British American Tobacco and Unilever - which is listed in both the UK and Holland.

The proposed new law would give black -Zimbabweans controlling stakes in foreign companies and allow them to appoint their own managers. They would also be able to set pricing policy - a sensitive issue in a country battling with the highest inflation in the world, currently exceeding 3,700 per cent.

Paul Mangwana, the minister for "indigenisation and empowerment", said the legislation, which is now before parliament, would affect all sectors of the economy from banking to manufacturing. He added that companies would be "free to look for partners who are black", but that government would "make suggestions" if they could not find any. "The objective is to ensure that black Zimbabweans take control of the economy and the resources of their country," he said. Mr Mangwana said a special fund would be created to help "indigenous" investors pay for their stakes.

However, with the economy in free fall and the government desperately short of foreign currency, there is little prospect that the companies will ever receive the money.

As with the land reform programme, many in business suspect the real beneficiaries of the asset grab will be Mugabe's cronies and officials of the ruling Zanu PF party, who will take control of the companies under the guise of business consortiums.

"Mugabe operates on patronage, and to try to bolster his position he will hand over these companies to people who support him. He's been threatening it for a long time," said an executive with a major British firm.

While many British interests are threatened, people close to the businessman Nicholas Van Hoogstraten, who is an ally of Mugabe, said that they believed that he would be spared. The British tycoon, whose farm in Zimbabwe was exempted from seizure in recognition of his financial support for Zanu PF, has stakes in NMB Bank, the Hwange Colliery and hotel company Rainbow Tourism Group.

With the country in crisis following the government's seizure of white-owned farms and the resulting collapse of commercial agriculture, economists warn that the new asset grab could be the final straw. One independent Harare economist, John Robertson, said the legislation would be a major blow to the country's manufacturing industry, which once accounted for 25 per cent of GDP but has shrunk to 15 per cent. "Nearly all the big commercial firms are already owned by Zimbabweans, but a number of the manufacturing operations are still owned by foreigners - some of them by the big multinationals like Unilever and Nestlé," he said. "I imagine some of these would close down, rather than relinquish control."

Mr Mangwana said he was not concerned that foreign companies might pull out.

He denied that British or American firms would be specifically targeted, saying the government was "not that petty".


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
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To: bruinbirdman

Mugabe and his kind -— make a strong case for abandoning Africa to its inevitable fate....

Are there now, any African nations with competent, moral and ethical governments?


21 posted on 05/26/2007 9:40:35 PM PDT by river rat (Semper Fi - You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: river rat
Are there now, any African nations with competent, moral and ethical governments?

No.

22 posted on 05/26/2007 10:12:05 PM PDT by rabscuttle385 (Sic Semper Tyrannis * WAHOO WA! * Allen for Senator from VA * Fred Thompson for President)
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To: bruinbirdman
Any white people in Zimwabwe is Sooooo asking for it..
All smart Zimwabeans have already left.. for parts unknown..
23 posted on 05/26/2007 10:21:30 PM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole....)
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To: UCFRoadWarrior
Mugabe is the ebony Hitler.

No. He's the ebony Stalin.

24 posted on 05/27/2007 5:58:24 AM PDT by libstripper
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Well, the darling of the leftist media here is Fidel Castro. Like I said, some people need killin’. I’m not sure who needs it more though, Mugabe or Castro.


25 posted on 05/27/2007 10:31:45 AM PDT by Cymbaline (I repeat myself when under stress I repeat myself when under stress I repeat myself when under stres)
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To: bruinbirdman
The death spiral of socialism continues towards it's next step with grim inevitability. I'm afraid that any attempts to reverse this trend will require ...physical removal... of Mugabe from the politics of Zimbabwe.

This might even happen thanks to natural causes, without need for "health alteration" by external operators: The Guy is 83 years old, older than Fidel Castro.
26 posted on 05/27/2007 12:43:32 PM PDT by MirrorField (Just an opinion from atheist, minarchist and small-l libertarian.)
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To: Cymbaline
"Well, the darling of the leftist media here is Fidel Castro. Like I said, some people need killin’. I’m not sure who needs it more though, Mugabe or Castro."

Chavez is climbing onto that list pretty fast.

yitbos

27 posted on 05/27/2007 2:34:00 PM PDT by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds." -- Ayn Rand)
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To: bruinbirdman
Chavez is climbing onto that list pretty fast.

The list is getting longer. Chavez, Kim Jong Il, Osama, Ahmedinijad, Mugabe...

So many targets, so few bullets.

28 posted on 05/27/2007 5:43:31 PM PDT by Cymbaline (I repeat myself when under stress I repeat myself when under stress I repeat myself when under stres)
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To: bruinbirdman; wastedyears; P-40; Cymbaline; UCFRoadWarrior; D-Chivas; Ruy Dias de Bivar; A6M3; ...
So Mugabe is the head of an illegitimate, murderous, and thieving regime. Virtually anyone, then, is authorized to remove him from office, including any neighboring countries.

I doubt it would cost more than a million dollars to oust Mugabe and bring him to justice. Lots for everyone in Zimbabwe and regionally to gain from his removal. I wonder why nobody's gotten around to it yet.

29 posted on 05/27/2007 6:11:48 PM PDT by ProCivitas (Qui bono? Quo warranto? (Who benefits? By what authority?))
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To: ProCivitas
[.. I doubt it would cost more than a million dollars to oust Mugabe and bring him to justice. ..]

And then theres the Diamond Mines there.. know what I mean?..

30 posted on 05/27/2007 8:44:09 PM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole....)
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